If Alberta’s Conservatives weren’t worried about the long-term effects of their surprise defeat in the May 5 general election, by gosh they should be now!

Premier Designate Rachel Notley gave her first official news conference yesterday to announce when she and her cabinet will be sworn in, when the Speech from the Throne will be delivered and other important dates in the transition to Alberta’s first New Democratic Party government. It was a bravura performance.

With disarming charm, Ms. Notley stick-handled the manufactured brouhaha about the young MLA whose tasteless Facebook pictures aroused controversy, disarmed the media and defused their toughest questions, and gave reporters a bone to gnaw with the announcement her cabinet will be astonishingly small.

Notwithstanding the renowned low average age of her 54-member government caucus, Ms. Notley generally gave the impression that the grownups are back in charge here in Alberta for the first time since Ed Stelmach stepped aside as premier in the fall of 2011.

Of course, Ms. Notley is bound to face tougher events of this type in the future – as, perhaps, when the New Democrats learn the true state of the finances left by the last couple of Tory governments. But this time, at least, from the vantage of the CBC’s live feed of her afternoon news conference in the Legislature’s media room, she seemed to be firmly in charge and enjoying herself enormously.

So, the premier designate told Albertans, she will be sworn in as premier next Sunday, along with 11 cabinet ministers.

The public ceremony will take place on the steps of the Legislature, with music and treats for children.

The NDP cabinet will be the smallest in any Canadian province but for Prince Edward Island, which has a population not much larger than the City of Red Deer and about an eighth the size of Calgary, never mind the difference in GDP.

The last couple of Progressive Conservative governments acted like a cabinet of 20 was evidence they’d pared things to the bone, so this should please the province’s allegedly conservative nature – although the Wildrose Party’s House Leader complained bizarrely that such a minuscule cabinet was bound to lead to bigger government under the NDP. Go figure!

The cabinet will hold its first meetings in Calgary next Wednesday and Thursday, Ms. Notley said, followed by three key events in June:

All MLAs will be sworn in on June 1

A new Speaker will be chosen on June 11

A Speech from the Throne will be read on June 15

Immediately after the Speech from the Throne, the Legislature will pass an interim supply bill so the government can continue to operate while a real budget is put together. This need was the result of former premier Jim Prentice’s brainstorm to call an early election for the mandate he just had to have before seeing a budget passed.

A full NDP budget will be tabled in the fall.

With the detail stuff in hand, Ms. Notley smoothly dispatched the matter of the controversy over 26-year-old Calgary-Bow representative Deborah Drever’s controversial Facebook pictures with barely a grumble from the assembled journos.

She said she had accepted the inexperienced MLA’s apology for the imbroglio and assigned her some homework to “reach out to groups that deal with vulnerable young women in an effort to find ways to expand and grow education on this issue, to ensure her commitment to fight violence against women and our government’s commitment to fight violence against women.”

Ms. Drever will not, however, be required to write what she learns on the blackboard 2,000 times – a metaphor, I’m afraid, that will be lost on many readers of this blog.

This, of course, will not be enough for the usual suspects who have been trying to use this to bash the government, but, as stated before in this space, they’re going to have to find more substantial issues if they want to have an impact.

Ms. Notley stuck to her guns about the need to conduct a review of Alberta’s royalty structure, and also promised a review of the province’s boards, agencies and commissions – which for years have been used as a well-compensated spot for soft landings by friends of past PC governments.

Prime minister finds another Lois to serve as lieutenant governor.

Meanwhile, lo and behold, there will be someone to read the Throne Speech on June 15!

Prime Minister Stephen Harper yesterday appointed Lois Mitchell (who she?) as lieutenant governor to replace much decorated former military man Donald Ethell, 78, whose planned retirement after five years on the job was revealed in this space a week ago.

Ms. Mitchell is a senior partner in a company called Rainmaker Global Business Development, which does … something. Make rain, perhaps.

She has a couple of sporting connections – as a governor of the Canadian Women’s Hockey Association and supporter of an Olympics fund-raising effort, as well as being the spouse of a former Canadian Football league commissioner.

Plus, she’s named Lois, which has worked out well in this field in Alberta before.

While relevant to a lieutenant governor’s tenure in the job, and unlike that of the old soldier who is about to fade away, it would appear that Ms. Mitchell’s age is a secret.

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6 Comments

Indeed, long huddle required to navigate all the snakes, ladders, traps etc. Summer is a good time for this.

Also a good time to connect with Albertans, especially in rural areas to ensure they do not get forgotten.

The Ministers of Agriculture, Culture, and Tourism are worth watching as these areas may have more job growth while we wait for oil prices to go up. (Mugs game predicting, but let us not hold our breath)

One more thought for the road – $15.00/bbl oil was not Ralf Klein’s doing, and $100/bbl oil was not in Harper or PC control. Yes call me Obvious-man, but many seem to forget that “Global Energy Superpower” was someone’s speech in UK back in 2006 or so. Many things have changed.

I suspect the small cabinet will play well with voters who always suspected the PC’s tended towards bloated government despite all their rhetoric about free enterprise. I think it is really making a virtue of necessity, but that is ok. I suspect it is a transitional cabinet to allow some new MLA’s to get more experience (say 6 months to a year) before putting them into a cabinet position. In this case a smaller cabinet probably also helps keep a better regional balance, especially regarding rural Alberta where the MLA’s probably have less experience.

A fall budget will probably have some who work for the government or are funded by it tying themselves in knots trying to figure where things are going, but the new government really does need some time to figure out things financially. It is better to take enough time to try and do things right rather than hurry too much and make mistakes.

I note that the NDP linked invitations to the swearing-in ceremony to its fund raising site until Don Braid embarrassed them into de-linking this government event from partisan fundraising. You couldn’t RSVP without getting hit up for a donation to the party. There was no indication that union or corporate donations would be unwelcome, I might add.

Rest assured those donations are not going to be used to defray expenses related to the ceremony. The taxpayer will pick up that bill.

The PCs, of course, were seasoned practitioners of this, but the NDP was supposed to be reforming political fundraising.